Remember the Milk
Features
- Native syncing to Outlook
- Free iPhone, Android, iPad App
- Paid synchronization between App, Outlook, and web interface
- Shiny Web Interface
Review
I started with Remember the Milk because it seemed to be the most popular choice amongst the masses (specifically, it seemed to get a lot of press on Lifehacker). After trying to use it for several months, however, I found it was simply inadequate. In my opinion, its greatest failing was its lack of a Start Date field. Though perhaps not an issue for many, I rely on filters and start dates to hide tasks that are not yet ready to begin. I also found that the native sync app, MilkSync, didn't always sync things properly. Some tasks didn't make it from one computer to another and sometimes metadata was inaccurate. In order to use anything other than the RTM web interface (e.g. Outlook, mobile native apps, etc.), RTM requires a yearly fee of $25 which, when I signed up, seemed fair, but after several months of use, I really feel that for the amount of money that the company seems to be making off of subscriptions, they really ought to provide more features.
Toodledo
Features
- Third party syncing to Outlook
- No subscription required
- Value added for subscribers
- Not-so-shiny Web Interface
Review
I started using Toodledo about a month ago; during my search for task management tools, it came up in most of the posts that I found discussing Remember the Milk. My initial impression was less that shiny, but once I got past the fact that web interface needs a facelift, I realized that it's significantly more feature complete than RTM. It synchronizes with Outlook for free (with third party tools) and sync to mobile apps (although the aps themselves are not free). There is a subscription service which adds some visualization features, support for subtasks, and more flexible reminders, but at this point, I don't see the need for it. The free version has significantly more metadata support than RTM: Start Date, Goals (with subgoals), contexts (e.g. work, home), Duration, and several others. One of the things that I really like about Toodledo is that priority sort that the web interface provides. Using a combination of start date, due date, priority, and possibly some other fields, the interface provides an ordered list of tasks based on the precedence it calculates. As I mentioned, the Web Interface isn't pretty but because of the ranking function, I've been tending to use it instead Outlook.
Final Thoughts
Remember The Milk needs to do a much better job turning it subscription fees into features. Toodledo, on the other hand, provides the same capabilities to Outlook as Exchange does and adds additional features via its web interface and mobiles apps.